The little shadow that flits across a face, the smile that is on the
lips and not in the eyes, the brave words and the anxious glance—these
things are eloquent.
For instance, Miss Selby talked about that unique household in Boston.
She did not say much, that wasn’t her way; yet Mr. Anderson deduced
that the mother, the grandmother, and the two aunts were, so to speak,
besieged in their Bostonian home, that the wolf was at their door, and
that Miss Selby was engaged in keeping him at a safe distance. And
that she was probably the pluckiest, finest girl who had ever lived,
struggling on all by herself, homesick and lonely, and _so_ young and
little.
As for him, he talked chiefly about the manufacture of paper. Until
now this subject had not been a particular hobby of Miss Selby’s, but
the more she heard about it, the more she realized what an interesting
and fascinating topic it was. What is more, while Mr. Anderson talked
about paper, he told her, without knowing it, many other things.
She learned that he was a very likable young fellow, with a great many
friends, and yet was sometimes a little lonely, because he had no one
of his own; that he was prodigiously ambitious, yet found his
successful progress in the paper business a little melancholy
sometimes, because no one else was very much affected by it. He said
he had been brought up by an aunt who had given him an expensive
education and a great many advantages; he spoke most dutifully of this
aunt, and of all that he owed to her, yet Miss Selby felt certain that
this aunt was a very disagreeable sort of person, who never let people
forget what they owed her.
Very different from Miss Selby’s aunts! She had even begun to think
that perhaps her aunts, together with her mother and grandmother,
might like Mr. Anderson, in spite of his size.
And then he spoiled everything. To be sure, he thought it was she who
spoiled everything, but she knew better. It was his lamentable, his
truly deplorable, masculine vanity. This man, who appeared so
independent, so intelligent—
This disillusioning incident took place on the second Sunday of their
acquaintance—the Sunday after that first walk. Almost as a matter of
course they set forth upon another walk, and as it was a bright, windy
day, rather too cool for sauntering in the woods, they went along the
highway at a brisk pace.
The spring had capriciously withdrawn. The burgeoning branches were
flung about wildly against a sky blue, clear and cold; the ground
underfoot felt hard; everything gentle, promising and beguiling had
gone out of the world. And perhaps this affected Miss Selby; her
cheeks were very rosy, her eyes shining, and she was in high spirits,
even to the point of teasing Mr. Anderson a little.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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